The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Yuengling Brewery of Pottsville, Pennsylvania is close to finalizing a deal to purchase the brewery in Memphis, Tennessee formerly owned by Coors. Yuengling has signed a letter of intent to buy the brewery for an undisclosed amount and the deal is expected to close in a few weeks. This will be Yuengling’s fourth brewery, as they currently own and operate three breweries, two in Pennsylvania and one in Florida.
The brewery was originally built by Schlitz in 1971 and then Stroh’s operated it for a time before selling it to Coors, where they brewed their Blue Moon line of stealth micros, along with Zima and Keystone. MillerCoors shut it down in 2006 and I seem to recall there were some labor disputes there, too. Then later that same year it was sold for $9 million and it became the Hardy Bottling Co..